Swedish police guard swim centers due to harassment claims

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Swedish police say they have sent plainclothes officers to monitor swimming baths in the capital after increased reports of sexual harassment of girls and women.

Stockholm Police spokesman Kjell Lindgren says they are investigating a few dozen suspected cases at swimming pools, mainly reported by the parents of teenage girls.

He did not want to comment on the suspected perpetrators except to say they were mostly boys or young men, although police have said there has been an increase in reports of sexual assaults against women by foreign men.

Lindgren said Tuesday that the measures were also adopted at the Eriksdals baths — Stockholm's largest swimming center — which started segregated whirlpool bathing after an increase in reports by girls and women that they had been groped underwater.